female journalists more likely to leave newspapers

42 - Newspaper Research Journal • Vol. 30, No. 3 • Summer 2009

Female Journalists More LikelyTo Leave Newspapersby Scott Reinardy

A survey of 715 U.S. newspaper journalists revealswomen report higher levels of exhaustion and lowerlevels of professional efficacy than do men. Amongwomen 27 and younger, 30 percent say they intendto leave the field.

Xn a page 2 Columbia Missourian editorial, the headline asked, "Should agirl have brains?" While the editorial emphasized the need for women to pursuetheir college ambitions, in part it said:

To succeed amid the fierce competitions of the world she needs all the strengthof character, all the development of mind that the most carefully arrangedcurriculum can give.^

The editorial was published in correspondence with the increasing enroll-ment of women at the University of Missouri in 1908. Two weeks later, MaryPaxton, the first woman to graduate from the Missouri School of Journalism—thenation's first school of journalism—was elected secretary of the Press Club.^

In the 100 years since those occurrences at the Urüversity of Missouri, womenin the workplace, and more specifically journalism, have made tremendousstrides. In 2008, women accounted for 37 percent of U.S. journalists,^ a dramaticincrease from the 20.3 percent in 1971'' and 7.3 percent in 1900. Also, at nearly64 percent women continued to be the overwhelming majority enrolling incollege journalism programs.^

But the advancements of women in journalism continue to lag behind theoverall U.S. workforce. Overall, in 2005 women accounted for 46.3 percent of the

Reinardy is an assistant professor in the William Allen White School of Journalismand Mass Communication at the University of Kansas.

Reinardy: Women Journalists More Likely to Leave Newspapers - 43

labor force.'' Meanwhile, while half of all people in management, professionalor related occupations were women,^ only 24 percent of women occupied su-pervisory positions in journalism.'As for pay, female journalists and the overallworkforce were equal, but it was only 81 percent of what men earned.'"

Even with more opportunity and better pay than 35 years ago, womenare less happy in their lives than they were in the 1970s. Analyzing data fromthe General Social Survey from 1972 to 2006, which includes more than 46,000respondents, Stevenson and Wolfers" reported that women have grown sig-nificantly less happy than men, but the researchers were unable to pinpointthe exact reasons for that decline. However, compared to men, women wereless happy in their marriage (for those who were married) than men and lesshappy with the family financial situation. Also, while job satisfaction amongmen has remained relatively constant, it has declined for women. Stevensonand Wolfer wrote:

Women may simply find the complexity and increased pressure in their modernlives to have come at the cost of happiness.^^

Loss of job satisfaction is nothing new among journalists. Weaver et al.reported that journalists who said they were "very satisfied" in their workhas declined from 49 percent in 1971 to 33.3 percent in 2002." Of those "fairlysatisfied" or "very satisfied" in the 2002 study, men accounted for 52.5 percentoverall." Job dissatisfaction might be indicative of intentions to leave journal-ism. More women (21 percent) said they intended to work outside of mediawithin five years compared with men (16 percent).'^ Overall, the main reasonsfor leaving the profession included low pay and job security (20 percent) andstress, burnout or poor working conditions (25 percent).'*

With the changing media landscape that includes increased Internet com-petition and additional work responsibilities, the job of a journalist has becomeincreasingly more difficult. Newsrooms have been designated "informationcenters,"'^ with the intent of providing online materials that include print-likestories, photographs, photo slideshows, informational graphics and video. Jobcuts and diminishing resources have exasperated the burden for journalists andcreated additional stress. From 2005 to 2007, newspaper stocks fell 42 percentand Sunday circulation in 2007 continued its downward trend at 3.3 percent.'*And in 2008, it is estimated that more than 14,000 newspaper jobs had beeneliminated."

The stress for women is compounded by family issues, sexism, discrimina-tion and the proverbial glass ceiling that limits professional prosperity. Femalejournalists are less likely to be married and have children than are men, ° andsometimes those wanting to have a child face discrimination.^' Studies haveshown that for women with children, the child-care responsibilities primarily fallto them, which further hinder promotional opportunities.'^^ Chambers, Steinerand Fleming wrote: "Women continue to suffer at the hand of unsympathetic

44 - Newspaper Research Journal • Vol. 30, No. 3 » Summer 2009

bosses and unrealistically longThe stress identified by Chambers et al. can produce Stressors, and over

time,'they can lead to burnout. Burnout is caused by stress that can lead to adepletion of emotional resources that affect a person's behavior and motiva-tion. ^ Burnout can affect job performance,^ job satisfaction,^* work and familyrelationships,^'' diminished productivity and employee turnover.^*

The purpose of this study is to examine burnout and job satisfaction amongfemale newspaper journalists and the life issues, such as work-family conflict,perceived organizational support, role overload and job demands, which mightaffect burnout and satisfaction.

Literature Review

In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control listed journalism seventh amongthe most stressful jobs.^' However, minimal stress and burnout research hasbeen conducted in this area. Journalists have said they have experiencedstress-related health issues,^ said their jobs are "highly stressful,"^' and haveadmitted they are at risk for burnout,^^ which were the result of Stressors suchas meeting newspaper deadlines, pressure to produce good work, low pay,media competition, long hours, implementing new technology and time awayfrom family.'

Stressors accumulate, and how individuals react largely depends on theirvalues, experiences and adaptability. A lone Stressor can become compoundedif the established support system fails.^ The stress of a reporter rushing to meetdeadline is compounded when his or her computer malfunctions. When stressaccumulates, the risk of burnout increases. Freudenberger and North wrote:

Over a short period of time, an 'overload of stress ' produces a cranky, irritableperson. Over a long period of time, that same daily stress places a demand onone's energy sources and produces a burned-out ^^

In an attempt to measure burnout among workers and their work. Maslach,Jackson and Leiter^ reconstructed the Maslach Burnout Inventory,^'' which wasoriginally developed to measure the relationship of workers and the people theywork with (clients) in the health-care profession. The authors write.

The apparent need for a scale that measures burnout in other occupationalgroups prompted the development of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-GeneralS ^ ^

Schaufeli and Enzmann^' found that in 498 journal articles, 93 percentreferred to the MBI.*°

The authors write:


The MBI is now the most widely used and best validated instrument to mea-sure burnout."

In expanding the MBI in 1996 to include those outside the health care in-dustry. Maslach, Jackson and Leiter created the MBI-General Survey (MBI-GS).The MBI-GS developers write.

The MBI-GS defines burnout as a crisis in one's relationship with work, notnecessarily as a crisis in one's relationship with people at

It measures burnout on three subscales: exhaustion, cynicism and profes-sional efficacy. Exhaustion examines work fatigue, cynicism measures apathy oran aloof attitude toward work and professional efficacy focuses on an employee'sexpectations of his or her own work.^'

The three-component MBI-GS rates a high degree of burnout if exhaustionand cynicism rate high scores and professional efficacy rates a low score. In theMBI-GS, cynicism represents dysfunctional coping, which means employeesbecome indifferent and cynical about their work to create distance from the job'sexhausting demands. While demonstrating a positive correlation with exhaus-tion, cynicism can also play a role in diminishing professional efficacy.'**

In 1981 when Maslach and Jackson developed the MBI, they gave littleconsideration to stress, only writing that "chronic stress can be emotionallydraining and poses the risk of 'burnout.'"^^ In 2001, while re-examining burnout.Maslach, Schaufeli and Leiter said that after 20 years of MBI research burnoutis "a psychological syndrome in response to chronic interpersonal Stressors onthe job.""* They also said exhaustion is the linchpin for stress that leads to burn-out because a person will become overextended, and emotional and physicalresources will become depleted.

For newspaper journalists, stress is an acceptable by product. Deadlines,competition, long and unusual hours and a demanding workload are com-monplace Stressors. Previous burnout studies on journalists have shown thatyounger, less experienced journalists suffer from higher rates of burnout thantheir older more experienced colleagues.''^ Cook and Banks'* said the most "at-risk" journalists for burnout are young, new to the profession, multitasking onthe copy desk and working at small newspapers. Typically they earn a below-average salary, intend to leave journalism and are less satisfied than their col-leagues. In examining sports journalists, Reinardy*' reported that sports editorssuffered higher rates of burnout than did sports writers and desk personnel, butoverall none of the groups were experiencing high levels of burnout. Neitherof those studies specifically examined the role of burnout among women, butother studies have done so by utilizing the MBI.

In examining occupational stress and burnout among 582 academic staffmembers at universities, Doyle and Hind^" reported that women had higher levelsof stress in their jobs. In fact, women rated higher in all 10 Stressors presented


in the study, including workload and "job interferes with personal life."^'On the MBI, there were no significant differences between men and women

on the subscales exhaustion and personal accomplishment, but women hadlower scores on the depersonalization scale than did men. ^ In essence, womenhad higher levels of stress but lower levels of burnout compared to men. Ad-ditionally, women reported more work pressure interfering with their personallives, which Doyle and Hind conclude might be a reflection of "greater domesticresponsibilities of women."^^

Other studies us-ing the MBI have de-termined that womenand men are gener-ally equal in levelsof exhaustion, butwomen have signifi-cantly lower levels / „ ¿/j/g g j ^y^ womeu Certainlyof depersonalization, . , , ,. " . . , . ^which would indi- provided distinguishingcate lower levels of differences from men in termsburnout.^Also,some / , , j T-/- • .7 .

studies have shown ofbumout and life issues thatinfiuence burnout. There aresignificant differences inperceived organizationalsupport, role overload andjob demands for men andwomen.

that women experi-ence lower levels ofpersonal accomplish-ment than do men.^'

Some s tudiesfound gender differ-ences on the MBI'sexhaustion scale.'^While Bekker et al. ^and Ahola et al.^*found higher levels ofexhaustion in women,Greenglass et al.^'found the opposite,attributing the lowerlevels to significantly more support from co-workers. This study will buildupon previous work by examining burnout of female journalists working innewspaper newsrooms. Along with the MBI-GS, the measurements in thisstudy include:

Overall Job SatisfactionCammann, Fichman, Jenkins and Klesh*° developed the Michigan Organi-

zational Assessment Questionnaire to measure six models designed to provide


information concerning the perceptions of individuals in an organization. Themodels examined general attitudes, which included the subcategory of jobsatisfaction.

Overall job satisfaction was developed "to provide an indication of theorganization's members' overall affective responses to their jobs.""

Perceived Organizational SupportEisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison and Sowa* developed a scale that

would measure employees' perceptions of organizational support (POS). Spe-cifically, Eisenberger et al. wanted to examine an individual's dedication toan organization and the factors that might influence that dedicafion, such ashow an organization treats an employee, and the perception and underlyingmotives of that treatment.

Since its development, more than 70 studies across a variety of disciplineshave utilized POS measurement.'^

Work-Family ConflictNetemeyer, Boles and McMurrian** established the work-family conflict

measurement with the understanding that these conflicts lead to job dissatisfac-tion, burnout, job turnover and possibly work productivity.

Netemeyer et al. defined WFC as,

A form ofinterrole conflict in which the general demands of, time devoted toand strain created by the job interfere with performing family-related respon-sibilities.^^

Stressors in the form of WFC lead to other issues such as job dissatisfactionand burnout, which in turn lead to a reduction in production and an increasein employee turnover.**

Role OverloadBeehr, Walsh and Taber* examined the role of stress on individually valued

aspects (job dissatisfaction, fatigue and tension) and organizational valuedaspects (quantity of work, quality of work and work involvement). In differen-tiating between the role Stressors of role overload and role conflict, Bucharach,Bamberger and Conley** refined the role overload scale tested by Beehr et al.Bucharach et al. defined role overload as

...the professional's perception that he or she is unable to complete assignedtasks effectively due to time limitations (i.e., the conflict between time andorganizational demands concerning the quantity of work to be done).^^

48 - Newspaper Research Journal • Vol. 30, No. 3 * Summer 2009

Job DemandsKaraseF" developed the job demand-control (JDC) measure to assess the

effects of job stress on the physical health of workers. The seven-question scaleexamines job Stressors and is based on two critical aspects: job demand (work-load in terms of time pressure and role conflict) and job control (employees'ability to control his or her work activities).

Research Questions and Hypotheses

Using the MBI-GS and the measurements for overall job satisfaction,perceived organizational support, work-family conflict, role overload andjob demands, this study will examine the following hypotheses and researchquestion:

Will there be differences between male and female journalists in overalljob satisfaction, perceived organizational support, work-family conflict, roleoverload and job demands?

HIFemale journalists will report significantly higher levels of exhaustion on

the MBI-GS scale than will men.

H2:Female journalists will report significantly lower levels of professional ef-

ficacy on the MBI-GS scale than will men.

H3:Women who said they intend to leave journalism will experience signifi-

cantly higher levels of burnout on the MBI-GS scale than will women who saidthey did not intend to leave journalism.

H4:Overall job satisfaction and perceived organizational support will have a

positive affect in reducing burnout among female journalists.

H5:Work-family conflict, role overload and job demands will have a negative

affect in increasing burnout of female journalists.


MethodThe Editor & Publisher International Yearbook^^ was used to extract e-mail

contacts at 1,452 U.S. daily newspapers. Most of the contacts were managingeditors. An e-mail was then sent to the managing editors in January 2007, ex-plaining the study and requesting the staff e-mail lists of their full-time news-paper employees. If e-mail addresses of managing editors were not available,the recruitment e-mail was sent to a general news mailbox.

Of the 1,452 e-mails, 338 were dead accounts. Of the remaining 1,114, some74 newspaper representatives responded and provided access to their staffs'e-mail lists. From that list, a database of 2,791 journalists was established.

The 73-question survey consisted of six sections, including job relationship,job satisfaction, work and family life, job demands, social support and back-ground. The "job relationship" section included the 16-question MBI-GS. The"job satisfaction" section included the three-question MOAQ job satisfactionscale, and nine-question perceived organizational support scale, which askedrespondents to answer using a Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree to 7 =strongly agree). The "work and family life" section included the five-questionwork-family conflict scale, which used a Likert-t3^e scale (1=strongly disagree to7=strongly agree). The seven-question "job demands" secfion asked respondentsto respond on a Likert-type scale (1 = never to 5 = extremely often). The "socialsupport" section included the three-question role overload scale (1 = definitelyfalse to 4 = definitely true). In the final section, "background," demographicinformation was collected, including gender, age, journalism experience, jobtitle, race, newspaper circulation size, salary, marital status, parental responsi-bilities and work hours per week. Questions about newsroom staff reductionswithin the past year, online responsibilities, intentions to leave journalism andnewspaper ownership group were included in this section as well.

In February 2007, 2,791 full-time newspaper journalists were sent anexplanatory e-mail and a Web link to the voluntary and anonymous survey,wiiich was made available on freeonlinesurvey.com. After discarding 120 deade-mail accounts, the sample was reduced to 2,671. The respondents received areminder e-mail in March 2007.

Of the 2,671 journalists, 715 completed the survey for a response rate oí 26.7percent, which aligns with Web survey response rates in other studies.''^

FindingsMean substitution was implemented to replace missing values in the data set

of 715 respondents, but no more than 3 percent of any variable was replaced.Descriptive statistics determined respondents averaged 41.6 years old, had

17.8 years of journalism experience, earned an average of $48,497, worked at anewspaper with an average circulation of 183,500 and worked on average 45.7


hours per week. Women in this study averaged 38.6 years old, had 13.9 yearsof experience, earned on average $44,005, worked at a newspaper with anaverage circulation of 176,737 and worked an average of 44.8 hours per week.Overall, a large majority of the respondents were Caucasian (90.9 percent), 57.6percent were male, 59 percent were married and 49.7 percent had children. Ofthe women, 48 percent were married and 36.2 percent had children.

Independent sample t-tests were conducted to answer RQl, which askedif there will be differences between men and women journalists in overalljob satisfaction, perceived organizational support, work-family conflict, roleoverload or job demands. The results indicate that there were significant dif-ferences between men and women in three areas—perceived organizationalsupport, role overload and job demands. There were significant differences (p< .05) between men and women in perceived organizational support, as menindicated high levels of POS than did women. There were also significant dif-ferences (p < .01) for job demand, as men indicated experiencing lower levelsof job demand than did women. Additionally, there were significant differences(p < .01) in role overload, as men indicated lower levels of role overload thandid women. There were no significant differences between the groups in jobsatisfaction or work-family conflict.

HI hypothesized that female journalists would report higher levels of exhaustion onthe MBI-GS scale than would men.

The independent sample t-test indicated significant differences (p < .01)between the groups, with men reporting lower levels of exhaustion than didwomen. [See Table 1] On the MBI-GS scale, a mean score between 2.01 and3.19 indicates an average level of exhaustion. So although there are differencesbetween men and women, both rate "average" in terms of the amount of ex-haustion they are experiencing. Nonetheless, HI was supported.

H2 stated that femalejournalists will reportsignificantly lower levelsof professional efficacy onthe MBI-GS scale thanwould men.

Independent sam-ple t-tests were used todetermine H2. Therewere significant differ-ences (p < .05) betweenthe groups, as menreported higher levelsof professional efficacythan did women [See

Table 1Mean MBI-GS Scores Comparing Women and Men

Women(n = 286)

Men(n = 388)

MeanSD

MeanSD

Ex

3.091.41

2.761.48

Cyn

2.681.65

2.531.60

PE

4.820.88

4.960.77

Ex = Exhaustion; Cyn = Cynicism; PE = Professional EfficacyE£: 3.2 and above = high; 2.01-3.19= average; 2.00 and less = low.Cyn: 2.20 and above = high; 1.01-2.19 = average; 1 and less = low.PE: 5 and above = low; 4.01-4.99 = average; 4 and less = high.


Table 2Mean MBI-GS Scores Comparing Women who Intendto Leave Journalism with Those who Don't Intend to Leave

Women leaving(n = 65)

Women staying(n = 107)

MeanSD

MeanSD

Ex

3.681.34

2.391.41

Cyn

3.351.53

1.951.46

PE

4.670.94

5.060.82

Ex = Exhaustion; Cyn = Cynicism; PE = Professional EfficacyEE: 3.2 and above = high; 2.01-3.19= average; 2.00 and less = low.Cyn: 2.20 and above = high; 1.01-2.19 = average; 1 and less = low.PE: 5 and above = low; 4.01-4.99 = average; 4 and less = high.

Table 1] On theMBI-GS scale, amean score be-tween 4.01 and4.99 indicate,"average" pro-fessional efficacy.So although H2was supported,the difference be-tween the groupswas minimal.

H3 stated thatwomen who saidthey intended toleave journalism would experience significantly higher levels of burnout than wouldthose who said they did not intend to leave journalism.

An independent sample t-test determined that there were significant dif-ferences between the groups on all three MBI-GS subscales: exhaustion f (170) =5.90, p < .001; cynicism f(170) = 5.98; professional efficacy i(170) = -2.867. Thoseintending to leave journalism reported higher levels of exhaustion and cynicismthan those who did not intend to leave. Additionally, women who intendedto leave journalism had significantly lower levels of professional efficacy thanwomen who did not intend to leave. [See Table 2] To summarize, women whointended to leave journalism had higher levels of exhaustion and cynicism, andlower levels of professional efficacy, which means H3 was supported.

H4 stated that overall job satisfaction and perceived organizational support will havea positive affect in reducing burnout among female journalists.

When exhaustion was the dependent variable, job satisfaction and perceivedorganization support account for about 40 percent of the variance (adjusted r-square=40.1), F(2,280) = 95.527, p < .001. Job satisfaction [B = -.582, t(280) = -9.25,p < .001 ] was a negative, significant predictor of exhaustion. Perceived organiza-tional support [B = -.076, t(280) = -1.20, p > .05] was not a significant predictorin this model. When cynicism was the dependent variable, job satisfaction andperceived organizational support accounted for about 55 percent of the variance(adjusted r-square = 55.4), F(2,280) = 176.336, p < .001. Job satisfaction [B = -578,t(280) = -10.64, p < .001] and perceived organizational support [B = -.2211(280)= -4.06, p < .001] were negative and significant predictors of cynicism. Whenprofessional efficacy was the dependent variable, job satisfaction and perceivedorganizational support accounted for about 23 percent ofthe variance (adjustedr-square = 22.5), F(2, 280) = 42.001, p < .001. Job satisfaction [B = .312, t(280) =4.35, p < .001] was a positive, significant predictor of professional efficacy, as


was perceived organizational support [ß = .210, t(280) = 2.93, p < .01]. To sum-marize, exhaustion and cynicism have a negative correlation to job satisfaction,but only cynicism is negatively correlated to perceived organizational support.Also, job satisfaction and perceived organizational support have a positive cor-relation to professional efficacy. Thus, H4 was partially supported.

H5 stated that work-family conflict, role overload and job demands will have a negativeaffect in increasing burnout of female journalists.

When exhaustion was the dependent variable, work-family conflict, jobdemands and role overload accounted for about 30 percent of the variance (ad-justed r-square = 30.2), F(3,269) = 34.140, p < .001. Work-family conflict [B =.337,t(269) = 5.96, p < .001] was a positive and significant predictor of exhaustion,as was the job demands variable [B = .232, t(269) = 2.91, p < .01]. Role overloadwas not a significant predictor of exhaustion in this model [B = .074, t(269) =.93, p > .05]. When cynicism was the dependent variable, work-family conflict,job demands and role overload accounted for about 6 percent of the variance(adjusted r-square = 6.2), F(3,269) = 4.983, p < .01. Only work-family conflict [B= .132, t(269) = 2.05, p < .05] was a positive and significant predictor of cynicism,while job demands [ß = .077, t(269) = .85, p > .05] and role overload [ß = .075,t(269) = .823, p > .05] were not. When professional efficacy was the dependentvariable, work-family conflict, job demands and role overload accounted forabout 4 percent of the variance (adjusted r-square = .037, F(3, 269) = 4.501, p <.01. While work-family conflict [ß = -.186, t(269) = -2.87, p < .01] was a negativeand significant predictor of professional efficacy, job demands [ß = .202, t(269) =2.21, p < .05] was a positive and significant predictor of FE. Role overload wasnot a significant predictor of professional efficacy [ß = -.171, t(269) = -1.89, p >.05]. To summarize, the model of work-family conflict, job demands and roleoverload only had a partial, positive correlation with exhaustion and cynicism,and a partial, negative correlation with professional efficacy. Therefore, H5 wasonly partially supported, and although the relationships were significant, thecorrelations were weak.

Conclusions

The purpose of this study was to examine burnout and job satisfactionamong female newspaper journalists and life issues, such as work-familyconflict, perceived organizational support, role overload and job demands,which might affect burnout, and satisfaction. Some of the results of this studyreplicate previous results where women experienced more exhaustion on theMBI than did men, ^ and lower levels of professional efficacy or personal ac-complishment^^ than did men.

With the MBI-GS, exhaustion examines fatigue, cynicism examines "indif-ference or a distant atdtude toward work," and professional efficacy measuresexpectations and accomplishments.^^ In their 2001 retrospective. Maslach,


Schaufeli and Leiter''* contend that people experiencing exhaustion create dis-tance by becoming indifferent or cynical. They argue that exhaustion and cyni-cism lead to a lack of efficacy. However, others argue that the subscales of theMBI (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment)must be treated as separate constructs.^ Lee and Ashford contend that personalaccomplishment "develops largely independent of emotional exhaustion anddepersonalization."^* That certainly could be the case in this study. While womenin this study did not experience any more cynicism than did men, there weresignificant differences on the other two MBI-GS subscales.

Because the relationship between burnout and work-family conflict, jobdemands and role overload were not strong, it's difficult to determine exactlywhat is causing the levels of exhaustion and professional efficacy among femalejournalists. And although the relationships between job satisfaction and perceivedorganizational support in diminishing burnout were strong, these factors donot appear to be counterbalancing the intention to leave journalism.

It's not surprising that women who intend to leave journalism are expe-riencing higher levels of burnout than are those intending to stay. However,those who said they intend to leave appear to be classic examples of burnout.^'After exhaustion and cynicism take hold, professional efficacy deteriorates. Thewomen who intend to leave have reached the final stage, and because there isno clear measure for combating burnout,*" the only alternative to relieving theexhaustion and cynicism is to leave. Changing jobs or even careers might bedirectly associated with the uncertainty surrounding the newspaper industry.Declining advertising revenue and stock prices have led to extensive layoffsand buyouts, particularly in 2008.*'

Perhaps a more startling result is found among women who said they werenot sure if they intended to leave journalism. Overall, 62 percent of women eitheranswered "yes" or "don't know" to the question "do you have any intentionof leaving newspaper journalism?" Although it wasn't specifically examinedin this study, the women who answered "don't know" (n = 110) are sufferingsimilar rates of burnout as those who intend to leave. Among women 27 andyounger, 74.2 percent answered "yes" or "don't know" with 30.3 percent sayingthey intended to leave newspaper journalism.

In this study, women certainly provided distinguishing differences frommen in terms of burnout and life issues that influence burnout. There are sig-nificant differences in perceived organizational support, role overload and jobdemands for men and women. So while women are feeling overburdened atwork, which may be leading to exhaustion and reduced feelings of professionalefficacy, they are not receiving the organizational support they seek. Faced withfamily and childcare issues, sexism, discrimination and the glass ceiling, it ap-pears women are not receiving the organizational encouragement to contendwith these issues or perhaps even to remain in journalism.

Chambers et al. wrote.


The fact that women journalists are disproportionately younger than their malecounterparts suggests that they are often pressured into quitting their jobs asa result of difficulties in juggling childcare and work responsibilities.^^

This study has limitations, including the sample size. While some overallassessments can be made, applying those assessments to all female journal-ists is not practical without further research. Additionally, those experiencingburnout might be more apt to participate in the study than would those withlesser burnout or stress issues. Also, a survey might not be the most appropriateapproach in attempting to discover the life issues that concern female journalists.Future research that includes in-depth interviews would certainly add contextto this study. Additionally, pursuing the causes of stress and burnout amongfemale journalists is fruitful ground for further exploration.

This study advances the discussion of burnout, job satisfaction and life is-sues that affect female journalists. It's clear that while a majority of journalismgraduates are women,*^ they do not feel compelled to remain in journalism.Until some of the issues in this study are addressed, women will continue to beunderrepresented in newspaper newsrooms. And for those already working innewsrooms, exhaustion, cynicism and lack of efficacy could drive them out.

Notes1. Editorial, "Should a Girl Have Brains?" Columbia Missourian, Sept. 15,1908,2.2. "Journalists Will Form Press Club," Columbia Missourian, Oct. 1,1908, 3.3. "Newsroom employment census," ASNE. Available online at http: / / www.asne.org / index.

cfm?id=5660. (Dec. 2, 2008).4. David Weaver, Randal Beam, Bonnie Brownlee, Paul Voakes and G. Cleveland Wilhoit, The

American Journalist in the 21" Century: U.S. News People at the Dawn of a New Millennium (Mahwah,NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2007).

5. Linda Steiner, "Gender at Work: Early Accounts by Women Journalists," Journalism History23 (spring 1997): 2-12.

6. Lee B. Becker, Tudor Vlad and Joel D. McLean, "2006 Annual Survey of Journalism & MassCommunication Graduates." Available online at http: / / www.grady.uga.edu / annualsurveys / En-rollment_Survey/Enrollment_2006/Enroll_2006v2.pdf. (Dec. 2, 2008).

7. "Employment Status of Women and Men in 2006," Department of Labor. Available onlineat http://www.dol.gov/wb/factsheets/Qf-ESWM06.htm. (Dec. 21, 2007).

8. "Employment Status of Women," Department of Labor.9. "Newsroom employment census," ASNE. Available online at http: / / www.asne.org / index.

cfm?id=5661. (Dec. 2, 2008).10. Weaver et al.. The American Journalist in the 21 Century; "Employment Status of Women

and Men in 2006," Department of Labor.11. Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, "The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness,"

Available online at http://bpp.wharton.upenn.edu/betseys/papers/Paradox%20of%20declining%20female%20happiness.pdf. (Dec. 2,2008).

12. Stevenson and Wolfers, "The Paradox of Declining," 20.13. Weaver et al.. The American Journalist in the 21 Century.14. Weaver et al.. The American Journalist in the 21 Century.15. Weaver et al.. The American Journalist in the 21 Century.


16. Weaver et al.. The American Journalist in the 21 Centur.17. Frank Ahrens, "Gannett to Change Its Papers' Approach," Washington Post, Nov. 7, 2006,

Dl.18. The State of the News Media 2008: An Annual Report on American Journalism. Available

online at http: / / stateofthemedia.org/2008 / narrative_newspapers_economics.php?cat=3&media=4.(Dec. 2, 2008).

19. Erica Smith, "Paper Cuts: Layoffs and Buyouts at U.S. Newspapers." Available online athttp://graphicdesignr.net/papercuts/. (Dec. 2, 2008).

20. Weaver et al.. The American Journalist in the 21 Century.21. Ray Rivera, "Suit to Scrutinize Bloomberg Era at Firm," New York Times, Sept. 29, 2007, 3.22. Deborah Chambers, Linda Steiner and Carole Fleming, Women and Journalism (New York,

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